Workplace Communicator Blog

5 Mistakes Companies make with their Standard Operating Procedures

As a safety content producer, I get the rare chance to look at countless standard operating procedures from a variety of large companies.

We use these documents to write clear, friendly scripts, in order to produce training videos that will engage, increase learner understanding and recall. Nearly, 95% of the time, these standard operating procedures are really hard to read and understand. And they're very often wrong.

Yes, so wrong, that when we go out to film and we direct our helper for the day to undertake the procedure we get "We don't do that here. We do this."

This means that we have to make changes to the script on the spot and spend a bit of time discovering the actual process and whether it is the right way to do it. This means a bit of consulting with the OHS manager, before we can get back to the art of filming. In the edit suite, it also means we spend more time on that section getting it right because it's a procedure that no-one has much clarity on, so it's important we make it really clear, even if we don't always have the right information.

Here is a list of five of the top mistakes we find time and time again in standard operating procedures (or SOP's):

Head office or Committees write the documents - if ever there was a bad way to write documents, it's like this. Usually the procedures are written in corporate speak with big words and long sentences. It's always about "persons" and what they can and can't do. Using a language that no-one would speak out on the floor (or in an office, unless they are an uptight lawyer with no friends). They read like legal documents where the focus is on protecting the company (and those who wrote it) and little effort is made to help staff members understand what to do correctly (I could go on for days about this, as it's a pet hate of mine). Often, the procedures are incorrect and head office or committees don't know how to improve them nor do they have the time to care.

Supervisors and other staff members write the documents - This is a better option than head office or committees because they should know what they're writing about. Sort of. But then usually because they don't feel comfortable writing, they write to impress their high school teacher. So again, out come the big words and long sentences. But because one site often does processes in a different way, you often get procedures that are irrelevant for different sites. This results in standard operating procedures that are not necessarily based on best practice. Generally, these SOP's get ignored because procedures are incorrect and inconsistent for a particular site.

Pass on the how but forget the why - A lot of SOPs pass on the 'how', but not the 'why.' This means that company processes get repeated without people ever questioning why they need to do something. Over time, staff are taught processes that solve problems that no longer exist. Empower your staff by explaining why they have to something, so they know whether that process is redundant when things change. Read more about this in "The Importance of Why in Workplace Training".

Boring formatting and lots of text - Educational researchers have found that 83% of human learning occurs visually. We all know how easy it is to learn from a picture than a page of poorly written or complicated text. Yet, probably less than 50% of the standard operating procedures I've had to trawl through have used any photos or diagrams.

Negative, unfriendly writing style - Humans tend to ignore negative words such as "don't or "can't", instead hearing the word after. So if you say "Don't run" many will just hear run. Rather than tell people what you don't want them to do, say what you want. So say "Walk slowly" instead. Often, standard operating procedures are full of lots of negative language. In fact, I worked on one that was so negative it treated the reader like they were already disobedient and a little on the stupid side. It was very off-putting and if I was a new starter, I would have been making plans to look for a new job (interestingly, this company has low turnover and good levels of morale, it was just head office protecting themselves, while the individual sites must have been making new starters feel welcome, regardless of the training manuals).

Three Steps to Fixing Up your Standard Operating Procedures

The better types of standard operating procedures I've read have been written by training managers or really, really passionate OHS managers who are always trying to work out the best way to communicate training messages. But they usually have mistakes lurking somewhere - a few incorrect procedures or challenging language.

Get an outsider to read your standard operating procedures. This is a great litmus test, as to how well a lay-person understands the information. Often, when you're an expert in your field you have "The Curse of Knowledge". This means the more you know in a certain field the harder it is to break the information down, so that a new person to the field can understand it. Either you give more information than a person needs to understand or too little. Give your SOPs to your kids, friends, family or external business colleagues to read. If it's written well, a child should be able to understand it.

Ask Why - Go through every procedure and ask why do we do that? You'll be surprised about how much redundant information you have that can be deleted. I regularly do this with clients (yes, I ring people up and annoy them by asking "Why do you this?" and "Why do you do that?") and it's amazing to discover how much information I can delete.

Go out and do the procedures according to the SOPs - This is a great way to test if they're still relevant and whether they make sense. Use this time to take clear photos, that you can add into your documents. Our clients get a lot of benefit from us querying why they do a procedure out in the field and getting the process documented and filmed correctly.

Use marketing and communication techniques to really lift the readibility of your training information. Try different ideas and techniques. If marketers can sell boring products, then they have the techniques to "sell" a mundane process. A great resource is Transform Your Safety Communication, get a free chapter here.

Having consistent and up-to-date training materials is a legal requirement. Ensuring that your standard operating procedures are correct is important for business safety and productivity. Start improving your procedures now and ensure all staff are doing the right procedure every time, everywhere.

A standard operating procedure should be a 1 or 2 page document that can be referred to in order to remind the operator what to do and when. Sitting behind the procedures is the training manual which is your 10-15 page document with all the pictures and short sentences.

The short SOP should sit where the process is taking place and be used as a reference for those that have been trained or are being trained. The training manual is used during training for people to follow and refer to when they have the luxury of time.

I am going through safety procedures at the moment that are up to 15 pages long because all of the "whys" and "hows" are in there and it takes a huge amount of time to find the information that you are looking for. With all the procedures to work with there is approximately 500 pages of information that needs to be read. That is why a lot of procedures sit in drawers, shelves or lining rubbish bins. Busy people do not have time to read them.

Keep the procedures short and about what need to be done and in what sequence, include checks that need to be done at what stage and what needs to be done if something is not right.

I also find with the procedures that I am reviewing that they were done as a result of a AS4801 audit and therefore they are being written for the auditor and not for the people that need to read them. Their focus is on what needs to be done to comply, not what needs to be done to keep people safe.

Just my 2 bobs worth.

Marie-Claire Ross

Hi Richard, You've made a good point that standard operating procedures need to be short. That's why including visuals is so important - it cuts down the need for lots of text. Writing with short and succinct sentences is also important (but hard for many people). Most procedures have a lot of guff that could be said in far fewer sentences.

However, while training is the "why" and "how", I've worked with a lot of companies whose training is just the what - the standard operating procedures. And it's because these procedures are used to train, that they need to include the why.

One of the nice things about asking "why", when writing standard operating procedures, is that it gets people to think about the tasks at hand and the ability to delete a lot of unnecessary sentences. A "why" explanation needs to only be a sentence long. Two maximum.

And yes, writing for an auditor as your audience will always make the sentences compliance-based and wordy. If only people wrote for the people doing a task in a SOP, rather than focusing on compliance!

ray o'halloran

Agree, in particular your last line - write an SOP for people doing the task, employees and managers need to understand the intent of the document, they wont read documents that focus solely on complaince and written by lawyers

Marie-Claire Ross

Hi Ray, Glad you agree. It seems like such a minor thing to say, but it makes a big difference to the SOP being used.

Cipriano Corva

Hi Marie-Claire,

Good information.

I find that SOP's are part of the company management system and should be written by someone skilled in operations processes.

The various Standards (Australian/NZ and ISO) specify how procedures should be developed.

SOP's should be very comprehensive and not a two pager. Work Instructions should provide the detail required to complete the task or operation, in a way that is easily digested by the worker.

Amy Chien

Can you please recommend a good reference book for a beginner SOP writer? Are there any workshops in the US that I can attend to learn how to write an SOP?

Thank you! Yours, Amy Chien

Marie-Claire Ross

Hi Amy, It's really important that you learn how to make information easy to understand and meaningful, so that people follow instructions. The SELLSAFE Communication system will help you create actionable safety messages. http://59176.hs-sites.com/sellsafe_training

manasa

who will prepare the STP's & SOP's in a company. which department will do this?...

This is a timeless article. Thank you for summarising the issues inside SWPs and offering actionable solutions.

What clever solutions have you found for reducing the total number of SWPs?

I have a few clients with departments that seem to compete over who has the larger number of procedures. I'd like a political and business management case, or data that explains the usability and manageability of SWPs. I believe some procedures can be demoted into an induction document, but many of the tech writer's suggestions get trumped by the Subject Matter Expert (usually the dept supervisor).

Procedures work best as stand alone doc. Include a bulleted list or 1-2 sentences at the beginning of every procedure that lists the participating roles by name, and summarises where the work is performed.

Adding 1-3 sentences that summarise why this procedure is in place helps with mental engagement. A succinct why seems to focus an employee on the outcomes of the steps.

Save the larger detail for supporting documents. I've had success putting a full roles and responsibilities table into a single external reference document. I found many site maps and diagrams also fit supporting (reference documents) or fit into training presentations.

Move forms out of the procedures into stand-alone documents. If you must show the form, show a close-up of the section you are discussing with reasonable data in the form. Add a small reference at the bottom of the form or to the back page of a form explaining related SWPs.